1. Field of the Disclosure
Embodiments disclosed herein relate generally to methods and systems for the real-time acquisition of data regarding well fluids and drill solids. More specifically, embodiments disclosed herein relate to methods and system for using data acquired during cuttings transference to adjust drilling operation parameters.
2. Background Art
When drilling or completing wells in earth formation, various fluids (“well fluids”) are typically used in the well for a variety of reasons. Common uses for well fluids include: lubrication and cooling of drill bit cutting surfaces while drilling generally or drilling-in (i.e., drilling in a targeted petroleum bearing formation), transportation of “cuttings” (pieces of formation dislodged by the cutting action of the teeth on a drill bit) to the surface, controlling formation fluid pressure to prevent blowouts, maintaining well stability, suspending solids in the well, minimizing fluid loss into and stability the formation through which the well is being drilled, fracturing the formation in the vicinity of the well, displacing the fluid within the well with another fluid, cleaning the well, testing the well, emplacing a packer fluid, abandoning the well or preparing the well for abandonment, and otherwise treating the well for the formation.
In a typical drilling operation, well fluids are pumped downhole to lubricate the drill bit and carry away well cuttings generated by the drill bit. The cuttings are carried to the surface in a return flow stream of well fluids through the well annulus and back to the rig or well drilling platform at the earth surface. When the drilling fluid reaches the surface, it is contaminated with small pieces of shale and rock drill cuttings. As the well fluid is returned to the surface, drill cuttings are separated from reusable fluid by commonly known vibratory separators (i.e., shale shakers). Typically, well fluid is cleaned (i.e., the particulate matter is separated from reusable fluids) so that the cuttings may be discarded in accordance with environmental regulations and the drilling fluids may be recycled in the drilling operation. Vibratory separators, one such cleaning method, are designed to filter solid material from the well fluids such that cuttings are removed from the fluid, prior to the fluid being pumped back downhole. Cleaning the cuttings via vibratory separators is only one cleaning process that cuttings may undergo. Certain drilling operations may use additional cleaning processes, such as, for example, use of centrifuges to further remove oil and other well fluids from the cuttings. The cleaning process is generally continuous with drilling of the well. Thus, as long as the well is being drilled, well fluid contaminated with cuttings is returned to the surface.
Presently, cuttings are returned to the surface, and after processing by cleaning equipment, discarded in cuttings boxes, collection bins, or otherwise transferred for downstream remediation processes, such as, for example, thermal desorption. One method of transferring cleaned drill cuttings is via a pneumatic transfer process, such as the processes described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,227, assigned to the assignee of the present application, and herein incorporated in its entirely. Such processes use a pneumatic transfer device to collect, isolate, and subsequently transfer cleaned cuttings through pneumatic piping to storage vessels located in close proximity to the transfer device. Other methods for transferring cleaned drill cuttings via pneumatic transfer are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,033,124, herein incorporated in its entirety.
Currently, pneumatic transference of cuttings allows a drilling operator to efficiently transfer cleaned cuttings from cleaning equipment to a storage location. However, the quantity of cuttings being transferred, and other data associated with returned cuttings and well fluid is not easily measurable. Thus, a drilling operator does not know the volume of cuttings that are being transferred, the rate of return of the cuttings, or specific properties of the cuttings, until they are collected in storage vessels and/or removed from the rig. The delayed acquisition of such data prevents the data from being used in determining downhole conditions and/or operability parameters of the drilling operations, such as, for example, the rate of penetration of a drill bit into the formation.
Instead, such data is only available by imprecise observations of drilling operators and by normalizing drilling programs to determine an expected volume of drill cuttings based on, among other things, a known rate of penetration, a wellbore diameter, and measurable formation properties. However, such acquisition means do not provide real-time data regarding cuttings production that is usable in an operation to adjust drilling parameters or to obtain information about a drilling operation. Thus, the data regarding drill cuttings that is obtained, while informative, has no viable function in the drilling operation.
Accordingly, there exists a continuing need for improvements in the data gathering capabilities of cuttings transfer devices to allows data acquired therefrom to be useable in real-time.